Resilient clip for curtain rods



y 15, 1952 R. c. CLARK 2,602,978

RESILIENT CLIP FOR CURTAIN RODS Filed March 9, 1949 INVENTOR.

ROBERT 6. OLA/PK BY ATTORNEY Patented July 15, 1952 UNITED; STATESPATENTFOFFICE Robert 0. Clark, San Francisco, Calif.

Application March 9, 1949, Serial No. 80,397

, v 1 Claim.

This invention relatesto resilient clips for holding rods such, as areemployed for hanging curtains, and more particularly relates to springclips in a cornice member for supporting within the cornice member a rodon which a window curtain or drape is threaded by insertion of the rodin the hem of a curtain. While such'a clip may have other analogoususes, its employment with ourtain rods aifords one practical use forillustrative purposes.

The employment of acornice in the hanging of curtains or drapes is wellknown, generally comprising an elongated strip or headboard having askirt depending at its opposite ends and along a front longitudinaledge,the opposite elongated side of the cornice being adapted for attachmentto a wall, usually over a door or window. opening. The depending skirtof the cornice may be of the same material as the headboard or may be ofother draped material, tapestry or the like. Customarily clips of somekind have been employed to releasably hold a curtain rod in the cornice,and this is especially desirable if a slatted blind or so-calledVenetian blind is employed at the opening, whereby the curtain or drapeand the rod upon which it is mounted may be removed readily for cleaningof the curtains, washing of a window or cleaning or repairing of aslatted blind at the window. Difiiculty has been encountered heretoforein providing a clip for mounting such a rod so that the rod may bereadily removed and replaced and which will not tear or disfigure thecurtain, but which will hold the curtain on the rod as it is originallydraped without sliding of the curtain.

The present invention consists of providing for such a cornice a springclip member having a top plate or strap forattachment of the undersideof the headboard of the cornice, and having a pair of integralopposed-resilient fingers which are retroverted at the opposite ends ofthe top plate and convergerelatively to an opening between opposed facesof the fingers, and then outwardly and their inwardly upon themselves tocooperatively provide resilient clamping jaws forming a loop or collarhaving aflat bottom wall at both sides of a slitted opening which isnormally closed responsive to the resilience of the fingers.

A broad object of the invention is to provide a novel resilient clip forreleasably holding a curtain rod, and a more specific object is toprovide a resilient clip for holding a curtain rod wherein the curtainrod may be inserted readily within resilient holding jaws, and be moreresistant to removal therefrom by reasonof fiat areas in said jawsadjacent the slit opening between the jaws.

With the foregoing and other objects in view which willbe apparent fromor will be further set forth in this specification, one embodiment ofthe invention is described herein and illustrated in the accompanyingdrawing it being understood that resort may be had to changes of detailswithout departing from the spirit of the invention which is defined inthe appended claim.

Referring to the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the invention with a cornice and drapesshown in brokne lines.

Fig. 2 is a plan view partly in section, and partly broken away,enlarged with relation to Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a laterally transverse vertical section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged perspective end view of one of the clip members ofthe invention.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective of a portion of modified form ofclip member.

Fig. 6 is a perspective .view of another modification of clip member.

Referring to the drawings in which like reference characters indicatecorresponding parts of the several views, I 0 indicates generally anysuitable type of cornice member for mounting across the lintle of anopening such as a door or window. The cornice is provided with anelongated top or headboard H from one elongated side and from eachend'of which depend a skirt I2 of any suitable material to obscure theunderside of the headboard and the attachments which are mountedthereto. The cornice may be of any suitable transverse width, dependentlargely on the purpose which it is to serve as a covering. Obviously, ifit is to overhang a curtain only it may be relatively narrow intransverse width, whereas it may be relatively wider if it is tooverhang both a curtain and a slatted window blind.

From the underside of the elongated cornice headboard l'l dependspringclips generally indicated l3, which are of relatively thinintegral strips of resilient material of suitable width having anelongated top plate Hi, from the opposite ends of which are retrovertedintegral resilient fingers l5 bent from the plane of the top plate.

The fingers l5 converge relatively to an opening l6 therebetween whichis intermediate the ends of the fingers and spaced from the top plateI4, being preferably bent to provide an inverted triangularfrustum-shaped space I! within the fingers. At the opening [6 the wallsof the respective fingers provide jaws by bending the fingers relativelyoutwardly upon themselves at an angle 18, preferably arcuately as at l9and then arcuately inwardly toward each other as at 20, the terminalportions of the jaws being relatively fiat portions 2| extendinghorizontally in opposite direction from lips of slit 22 in a planesubstantially perpendicular to the lateral transverse central verticalplane of the clip and thereby providing a collar with a flat bottomhorizontal wall on both sides of slit 22 so that a rod may be looselyheld in the collar and move from side to side therein and notnecessarily remain directly overlying the slit. At the opposed ends ofthe fiat portions the opposed lips of the jaws come close together andpreferably are in resiliently induced superficial contact relatively, toprovide the resiliently closed slit opening or lips 22, whereupon thefingers are again bent at said lips relatively angularly outwardly toprovide divergently fianged guide wings 24 which may diverge relativelyto each other approximately perpendicularly or substantially ninetydegrees.

Thus, the arcuately formed portions 19, 28 and the flattened portions 2|of the fingers cooperate to provide within the jaws an open loop orcollar 25 for receiving a curtain rod 29. One side of the collar 25 hasthe opening [8 into the triangular space I! and the opposite side ofwhich has the resiliently closed slit of the lip opening 22. While theopening I6 is intended to remain open, the jaws contact at the 'slit'22, this being importantin relation "to the flatted areas 2] of thejaws, since the object is'to hold a curtain rod of some considerableweight and hold it firmly against the tension of any normal pull of thecurtain mounted on the rod.

The top plate 1'4 is secured to the underface of the planar headboard Hby a screw inserted through a hole 21, preferably having a slot 28 opento the side edge of the top plate so that the screw may be permanent inthe headboard and the top plate slid between the head of the screw andthe headboard by sliding the shank of the screw in the slot'forremovingor replacing the clip. The hole 2'lis shown in Fig. 4 as being slightlygreater in diameter than the width of slit 28 so that slight adjustmentmay be made in position of the clip on the screw before cinching thescrew, whereby a series of clips may be adjusted to perfect relativealignment when inserting rod 29 simultaneously in a series of themounted clips even though the screws for mounting them may be somewhatout of alignment. Or, if desired, the head of a previously fixedmounting screw may be inserted through the opening hole 27 and the clipmoved laterally until the shank of the srew is in the slot 27, whereuponthe mounting screw may be cinched tight to securelyposition the clip.This latteruse of the hole and slot is not to be preferred as it tendsto position a series of the clips out of alignment unless each clip ismeasured for position before cinching the mounting screw.

The curtain rod 29 may be a straight bar or have its opposite endsangularly turned to provide opposite end sections 30, the curtain drapes3| being mounted on the rod by providing a hem 32 through which the rodis inserted in a wellknown manner. If the curtain rod is straight, theclips are mounted with the elongated top plate ll normal to the lengthof the headboard which aligns the resiliently opposed slit or lipopening 22 and the collar opening parallel with the length of theheadboard. If the ends of the rod are turned angularly as at 30, thenthe clips at the opposite ends of the headboard have the elongatedlength of the top plate parallel to the length of the headboard and,therefore, the open collar 25 and the resiliently closed lip opening 22are perpendicular to the length of the headboard.

In operation, assuming the curtain to have been inserted on the rod byinsertion of the rod in the hem, the rod may then be manually pressedbetween the divergent wings 24 with sufllcient pressure to open the jawswhereby the rod and the hem portion of the curtains thereon may beinserted by continued pressure into the collar opening 25 between thejaws, and any portion of the curtain above the hem maybe passed throughthe opening I6 and into the triangular space I1. The fiat portions 2| ofthe jaws serve to support and hold the rod in the collar opening, sincea normal downward pressure or pull of the rod against the flat surfaces2| will not have a tendency to spread the jaws at the lip opening 22,whereas if the collar walls incline towards the opening slit 22, therod, when pressed against the slit, acts as a wedge against the inclinedwalls in spreading the lips of the opening apart. When it is desired toremove the curtain rod, it is only necessary'to exert a slight manualpressure of the operator's thumb between the flanged wings 24 in orderto open the jaws by a similar pressure as was employed to insert thecurtain rod therebetween.

In Figs. 5 and 6 modified forms of the clip are illustrated. In Fig. 5the modification comprises mainly a top plate Ma of greater length thanin Figs. 1 to 4, the top plate being retroverted at its opposite endsand overlapped upon itself closely parallel to provide opposite endflanges [4b through which the eye 26 may be made .for receiving screwsfor mounting the clip on the headboard. In the modification of Fig. 6,the top plate I40 is somewhat inwardly concave, providing a somewhatgreater resilientpressure to the jaws at the lip opening 22. Other thanthe modification of the top plate of Figs. 5 and 6 the structure of theclip of those -modifications is similar to the clip of 'Figs. 1 to 4.

Having thus described the invention, I claim:

A clip for curtain rods, comprising a strip of resilient material bentupon itself and having a top plate, resilient fingers at the oppositeends of the top plate bent from the plane thereof at an incline towardeach other, each of said fingers being bent outwardly from the end ofthe said inclined portions and then bent inwardly to provide a pair oflips of confrontingly opposed jaws integral with the resilient fingers,said jaws providing an open collar for receiving a curtain rod, the jawsbeing resiliently in contact at the opposed lips thereof providing aresiliently closed slit in the collar, and the collar having flat wallportions extending in opposite directions-from the slit substantially inthe same plane horizontally perpendicular to the lateral transversecentral plane of the clip; and a wing at the terminalend of each fingerfianged'relatively outwardly-from each of the jaw lips at said slit.

- ROBERT C. CLARK.

REFERENCES orrEi) The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 150,251 McCoy Apr. 28, 1874474,277 Young. May -3, 1892 588,974 Frost et-al Aug. 31, 1897 713,888Kellner' Nov.'18, 1902 832,296 Coggeshall Oct. 2, 1906 1,340,070Markham-"1 May 11,1920 1,423,043 Steinheiser July'l8,-1922 1,845,268Harvey 'Feb. 16, 1932 1,906,874 Platt May "2, 1933

